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The Wiltshire Police inquiry into Sir Edward Heath has been plunged into disarray after it emerged the most serious allegation was brought by a jailed paedophile and dropped by Scotland Yard two years ago.

The £1.5 million inquiry concluded Heath - had he been alive - would have been interviewed over an allegation that he raped an 11-year-old boy more than 55 years ago. The allegation was the most serious uncovered by Wiltshire Police in the course of a two-year investigation.

But The Telegraph can disclose that the rape claim was investigated by the Metropolitan Police as long ago as April 2015 and dropped.

Supt Sean Memory makes an appeal for child sex abuse 'victims' of Heath to come forward in August 2015

The allegation was made by a serial child sex abuser while he languished in jail on remand. Wiltshire Police described the man, who has convictions for child sex abuse dating back more than 40 years, as a ‘victim’ in its controversial report that has trashed Heath’s reputation.

His identity cannot be made public due to laws protecting anybody who complains to police of being a victim of a sex offence.

The paedophile, now aged 68, complained to Scotland Yard’s specialist child sex abuse team in April 2015 that Heath raped him when he was aged 11 in 1961. The man claimed that Heath had picked him up as he walked along the A2 in Kent and taken him to his flat in Mayfair where he raped him.

The claim was made public in an article in a tabloid newspaper in August 2015, a day after Wiltshire Police launched its inquiry with a public appeal outside Heath’s home in Salisbury for ‘victims’ to come forward.

Heath on board his yacht Morning Cloud. Police ruled out any crimes on the yachtCredit:
James Jackson/Getty Creative

The Metropolitan Police then issued a statement explaining the rape claim had already been investigated by Operation Fairbank, which was looking at allegations of VIP sex abuse.

Scotland Yard said in a statement issued on August 4 2015: “In April 2015 an allegation of rape was made to the MPS [Met Police]. An officer from Operation Fairbank interviewed the complainant that same month and obtained a full account. Support services were offered. However, after a full assessment of the allegation there were no lines of enquiry that could proportionately be pursued by the MPS.”

Critics of the Wiltshire Police inquiry said it was astonishing that the most serious allegation against heath had been dismissed two years earlier - and that Wiltshire had failed to disclose this in its summary report.

Lincoln Seligman, Heath’s godson, said: “This is a serious act of omission for Wiltshire not to mention that the allegation had been discontinued by the Met after investigating it.”

Mr Seligman said that Wiltshire Police’s chief constable Mike Veale should now consider quitting. “If Veale had new evidence that overrides the Met investigation he should tell us. We need to know what else he isn’t telling us about these allegations. He should consider his position.”

Lord Macdonald, the former Director of Public Prosecutions, has called the inquiry a "tragi-comedy of incompetence."

Lincoln Seligman, godson of HeathCredit:
Andrew Matthews

The alleged rape victim was interviewed by Wiltshire Police as part of Operation Conifer while he was in jail for child sex abuse. He remains in prison serving a very lengthy sentence. In a previous child sex abuse case, the accuser had blamed his offending on witnessing people being killed in conflict zones. He made no mention of being a victim of Heath. He has also been described as an “habitual liar”.

The allegations had first appeared in the public domain in August 2015 in a tabloid newspaper and were contained in letters written by the man to his lawyers and passed to the newspaper.

Wiltshire Police, in the press conference on Thursday, said it wasn’t aware that any of the ‘victims’ had been interviewed in newspapers. On Friday, the force denied it had misled the press because the man’s account had been outlined in prison letters.

Mike VealeCredit:
Rod Minchin

Wiltshire Police declined to respond to a series of questions posed by The Telegraph including: “Is Wiltshire Police concerned it has traduced Edward Heath’s reputation based on an allegation made by a serial paedophile currently in jail whose claim was dismissed in April 2015 by the Met Police’s specialist paedophile unit?”

A spokesman for the force said: “It is... not the intention to be drawn on any further operational detail, as to do would potentially place victim anonymity at risk, a matter that Wiltshire Police take very seriously and which has been central to this investigation throughout.”

Wiltshire Police has said that six allegations, including the rape, would have merited interviewing Heath under caution. It insisted the inquiry was proportionate and justified.